The Power of Teamwork

If you want to see what the power of teamwork looks like, you need look no further than our own Oakland A’s. At the All-Star break, the A’s have the best record in Major League Baseball. Yet, the A’s don’t possess the best individual athletes at every position and they don’t have a large payroll that attracts the big free agents to come play in Oakland. And they certainly don’t have a state-of-the-art stadium and clubhouse accommodations that would attract players to play here!

So, how can the A’s be so successful? I believe the answer lies, in part, in the A’s great teamwork, which results in ‘the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.’

Specifically, the Oakland A’s possess:

a commitment to a shared goal.

a focus on the team’s (rather than individual) success.

a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.

great group chemistry and personal enjoyment of the game.

a commonly-held belief that they will succeed.

a refusal to quit when they’re losing.

the ability to bounce back, on those occasions when they do lose.

In short, the A’s win as a team and lose as a team.

Photo from http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/002/713/562/hi-res-183196567-josh-reddick-of-the-oakland-athletics-bunts-the-ball-in_crop_north.jpg?w=630&h=420&q=75

Like the A’s, Keep Oakland Beautiful (KOB) relies on the power of teamwork. As an all-volunteer organization, Keep Oakland Beautiful must harness the same level of commitment and belief in success from the residents of Oakland that the A’s get from their players and other members of their organization.

Keep Oakland Beautiful’s goal is important because it involves the well-being of our 400,000 residents. As residents, we all have to buy into the program that protecting and beautifying Oakland’s environment is a critical team goal and that we all need to play a meaningful role to collectively achieve this goal.

If you want to see the power of teamwork in action, I highly recommend that you go out to the O.Co. Coliseum and watch our great Oakland A’s team. Better yet, come out to a Keep Oakland Beautiful-sponsored environmental event and be a player ona great Oakland team.

Keeping Oakland Beautiful is everybody’s business.

We encourage you to share your thoughts in the reply section. We welcome the dialogue and learning of others’ perspectives.